Digital advertising spending has risen yearly; experts predict it will hit $835 billion by 2026. This surge in expenditure despite inflationary woes and business downturns reflects the importance of picking the right digital marketing channel for growing businesses. Find out everything you need about digital marketing channels with this Coalition Technologies guide.
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The Importance of Marketing Channels
A digital marketing channel is a conduit that allows businesses to communicate with their target audience in a particular way. Some examples include organic social media, SEO, paid ads, and influencer marketing. It can be challenging to differentiate between the top digital marketing channels; here’s why your choice matters:
- Every digital marketing channel has a unique audience with demographics, preferences, and user behavior. Businesses that can zero in on a channel catering to their target audience can use it as a tool to communicate and sell effectively.
- The list of the best digital marketing channels in 2024 is full of options that can all seem equally appealing. Brands can blow their budget without getting tangible results if they aren’t careful about picking the proper channels.
The ideal digital marketing channel for your business will help you increase conversions while providing a great ROI. Once you have a custom marketing strategy for your target channel, you can maximize its strengths and avoid needless spending.
Top Channels in 2024
Social Media (Paid & Organic)
Ad spending on social media exceeded expectations in 2023, reaching $270 billion against a projected $230 billion. As a top digital marketing channel, social media offers an unbeatable way to build brand identity and a loyal customer base. Let’s look at what’s driving spending here:
- Userbase: The social media space has become incredibly competitive over the past decade, with Instagram and TikTok exploding in popularity. Despite the competition, Facebook alone reported around 3.04 billion monthly users in 2023. Businesses want to connect directly with their customers on the platforms they spend the most time on.
- Ad Tools: Digital marketing in 2024 is prioritizing factors like ROI more than ever with the inflationary trend in CPCs. Social media’s spot as a top digital marketing channel is also partly due to the robust and cost-efficient tools it offers marketers. For example, platforms like Instagram allow brands to be precise with ad targeting and provide powerful content creation tools that can increase conversion rates.
- User-Generated Content: Social media is a unique marketing channel due to its potential for two-way communication. Where other channels like email and paid ads work one way, with the brand reaching out to customers, social media allows the audience to reply with their content. Two-way communication makes outreach feel much more organic and will enable posts to go viral with the right strategy.
Paid Ads
Paid ad platforms like Google Ads and Facebook Ads have evolved considerably since their debut, making this a top digital marketing channel despite the changing landscape. Experienced marketers have used Pay-Per-Click services for years to reach massive target audiences and drive conversions – so what’s changed?
Like other legacy digital marketing channels in 2024 that have remained relevant, paid ad platforms are thriving because of their ability to adapt to the times. For example, Google Ads now uses AI for their Performance Max campaigns to create the most effective ads for an audience segment.
Whether it’s Google Ads or any other paid platform, these new features mean marketers get more value from each dollar spent on advertising. The right PPC strategy can help a growing business generate immediate results even with a limited budget, allowing it to get a headstart in its growth journey.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is a top digital marketing channel that improves the quality and quantity of website traffic, helping it rank higher on search engine results pages with organic strategies that target relevant keywords. User habits might change with the growth of generative AI and voice search. Still, SEO remains a priority for businesses that want to grow brand awareness and generate organic conversions. Let’s take a look at how SEO might change digital marketing in 2024:
- Search Generative Experience: Google has been testing SGE as an AI-powered solution that can clearly and concisely answer queries. Keep in mind that this is not a ChatGPT answer. SGE will include sources and allow users to ask follow-up questions, making it more of a conversational assistant. SGE is still in the testing phase, but its implications for the top digital marketing channels are intriguing.
- Video SEO: The rise of short-form content on platforms like TikTok and YouTube Shorts is no secret. Brands should capitalize on these active platforms by using video SEO. This strategy involves using research tools to find the most relevant keywords for a video and then implementing them into the title, tags, and description. Some channels even include those keywords in their video thumbnails to increase clicks.
- Answer Optimization: New developments like SGE and ChatGPT don’t necessarily have to be bad for your web traffic. Top digital marketers can use channels like SEO to highlight their content in ChatGPT answers. Getting featured in AI-generated answers means adapting your content to a Q&A format that is concise and helps searchers as quickly as possible. An easy way to do this is to include FAQs in your content.
Organic clicks made up 45% of all search results clicks in 2022. Businesses targeting meaningful long-term growth need a great SEO strategy to maximize their digital marketing results in 2024.
Is It a Good Time To Invest?
Investing in a new digital marketing channel can be daunting during economic uncertainty. Let’s examine what’s driving investment in top digital marketing channels this year and the pain points keeping businesses away.
| Reasons For Increased Investment | Reasons For Decreased Investment |
|---|---|
| Higher growth can hinge on a larger marketing budget | It can take time for ROI to materialize |
| Building more efficient campaigns with AI | Economic uncertainty |
| Reinvesting after seeing the ROI from a successful campaign | Delaying marketing campaigns until costs decrease |
Decreasing your investment will only hinder your future results, whether because of inflationary woes or a lack of faith in previous digital marketing campaigns.
Increasing or at least maintaining your campaign spending gives you access to a treasure trove of valuable assets and data that can be used to build successful digital marketing campaigns in the future.
Omnichannel – The Way Ahead
Even the most selective businesses will want to build a presence on at least 2-3 top digital marketing channels. Branching out to multiple digital marketing platforms in 2024 throws up three key challenges:
- How can you build a consistent experience across various channels?
- What’s the best way to serve customers across those channels?
- How can I create a cohesive customer journey?
Omnichannel marketing solves these challenges and helps businesses build a consistent customer experience across every channel. An omnichannel marketing approach allows customers to transition seamlessly from one facet of a company to another. For example, an eye-catching Starbucks email includes a discount code that can be redeemed on their official app.
Build an omnichannel strategy to make the most of the top digital marketing channels. We recommend working with an agency that can help you manage multiple platforms and maximize your results.
Level Up Your Marketing With Coalition
Knowing about 2024’s popular digital marketing trends is one thing, but making the most of them with a custom strategy tailored to your business is a different beast altogether. Work with an expert digital marketing agency that can leverage everything from PPC to social media and SEO to give your business the visibility it deserves. Contact Coalition Technologies today for a free consultation.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What are the most popular digital marketing channels?
Marketers are seeing a massive shift in the top digital marketing channels in 2024 and beyond, with social media marketing and short-form videos surging in popularity. Businesses are increasing their spending on these channels because they can be used to form and maintain long-lasting customer relationships.
What’s the best marketing channel for my business?
There is no one-size-fits-all answer when it comes to digital marketing in 2024. Look at your target audience and how they interact with the internet to determine which channels to prioritize. Your long-term business objectives, budget, and strengths/weaknesses should also factor into your decision. You can also work with an agency that can help you discover the top digital marketing channels for your brand and the best ways to use them.
How can I track the performance of my digital marketing channel?
Tools like Google Analytics and Meta Business Suite make it easy for businesses to track their performance on a granular level. Once you’ve set up your profile and determined which events to follow, you can keep an eye on the most critical KPIs for your business with detailed monthly reports.
